30th January 1983, Dewsbury vs Rochdale at Crown Flatt. 650 hardy spectators had trudged through the torrential rain and some refused to pay the extra to stand under cover so stood for the whole match on the Long Stand. A match of ceaseless effort coupled with no little incompetence as the ball was dropped, knocked on or knocked out of the grasp time after time. A succession of (competitive) scrums collapsed incessantly and the rain continued to drive down out of a Stygian sky. The final ten minutes of the game were played before a grumbling and baying crowd urging both sides on to ceaseless defensive effort and greeted the final score with a mighty roar - well a cattarhal chuckle anyway.

Posponed my holiday by a day just so I could go, much to the bemusement of my Mum. Alex Brown will forever be a hero after that day with batley winning their first significant trophy since 1952. Buzzing!!

Best ever for me was Brisbane v Wigan 1994 at the ANZ. Wigan won by 20-14.
Boy, did the Aussie fans sulk that night.
Next morning's papers blamed everyone except the Broncos team.
When the Broncos BOD saw Wigan arriving with half a pack they offered a "winner takes all" for the prize money.
After them losing the Broncos didn't pay up.
It was a long way to go for one match and my first visit to Australia but worth every mile and every penny.

I wasn't there. I had a feeling it was going to be a record and I was going to go but I was down south and my more sensible angel persuaded me that it would be an 80-0 drubbing of no note whatsoever.

So I didn't go. I watched it on Ceefax.

I'd have been gutted if Greg Austin had become the fifth person to score 10 tries in a match. I think he got 9 in the end. The story is that he spurned a tenth because he didn't want to match Lionel Cooper's 10 vs Keighley against such weak opposition. I can't imagine that's true though.

Best ever for me was Brisbane v Wigan 1994 at the ANZ. Wigan won by 20-14.Boy, did the Aussie fans sulk that night.Next morning's papers blamed everyone except the Broncos team.When the Broncos BOD saw Wigan arriving with half a pack they offered a "winner takes all" for the prize money.After them losing the Broncos didn't pay up.It was a long way to go for one match and my first visit to Australia but worth every mile and every penny.

The attendance was given as around 54000 and then - mysteriously - tens of thousands were lopped off that figure: I presume that was somehow connected to the winner-takes-all challenge put forward by Brisbane? I'm sure I remember reading Dave Hadfield's wry thoughts on all of this all those years ago...

Incidentally, does anyone know if Brisbane paid up the full amount?

As for "sulking" - some Australians still are if you go according to what they post about the forthcoming World Club Challenge. Don't you know that it's just a pre-season jolly and that poor old Brisbane played a game both the weekend before and the weekend after?

Au contraire, it stuck out a mile for me as a very good bet. I actually had two ten pound bets, the other was Hudds by 51-55 at 20/1 IIRC.

Widnes had played their first game at home before a decent crowd v Wakey. They lost, I think, 18-29 or summat like. I thought at the time, if they can't win under those circumstances, they're gonna get a reet pasting at the Galpharm.

Ladbrokes odds were far better than any other bookies for that particular game.